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September 8, 2009

Florida stays atop coaches’ poll

by Sam Savage

Florida grabbed 56 of the 59 first-place votes and remains the top-ranked college football team in the USA Today poll of coaches.

Florida, which opened its season with a 62-3 rout of Charleston Southern, has 1,472 ranking points and is ahead of No. 2 Texas (1-0), which pulled two first-place votes and totaled 1,407 points. Southern California (1-0) received the other first-place vote and has 1,352 points as the Trojans moved up one space from the pre-season poll.

That was because Oklahoma (0-1) fell 14-13 to Brigham Young and dropped from third to 14th in the poll. BYU (1-0) went from 24th to 12th with the win.

Alabama (1-0) also was up one place to fourth and Penn State (1-0) improved three to No. 5. Oklahoma State (1-0), 11th in the pre-season, is sixth but Ohio State (1-0) fell one slot to seventh. Mississippi (1-0) went from 10th to eighth while Louisiana State (1-0) remained ninth and California (1-0) moved up two to No. 10.

Boise State (1-0) was up five places to 11th and Georgia Tech (1-0) came in after BYU. Virginia Tech (0-1) slipped from seventh to 15th.

Texas Christian (0-0) is 16th in the latest poll, followed by Utah (1-0), Nebraska (1-0), North Carolina (1-0) and Notre Dame (1-0).

Nos. 21-25 in the rankings are, in order, Georgia (0-1), Miami (Fla.) (1-0), Cincinnati (1-0), Oregon State (1-0) and Kansas (1-0). Miami, Cincinnati and Kansas are new entrees this week with pre-season No. 14 Oregon, No. 19 Florida State and No. 21 Iowa dropping out of the Top 25.